1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a method of pre-installing an application, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an image forming apparatus provides an operation environment of an application program (to be simply referred to as “application” hereinafter) represented by a JAVA® environment. In order to improve functions and usability of an image forming apparatus, an application, which runs in an environment with high program portability such as a JAVA® environment, is created and installed, thereby implementing a desired function.
As a conventional method of installing an application in an image forming apparatus, a method of installing the application from a client terminal via a network is known. However, such install method requires pre-settings of the network, and imposes a heavy load on the user who wants to install the application. Thus, as an application install form, a preinstall form is known, that is, an application is incorporated in advance in an apparatus and is installed when the apparatus is activated (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-355479).
Examples of applications to be installed in an image forming apparatus include two types of applications, that is, a system application (system software) and general application (application software). The system application and general application have the following difference. That is, the system application is provided as firmware of the image forming apparatus, and cannot be uninstalled. By contrast, the general application allows additional install and uninstall. Also, the general application requires a license required to run the application for the purpose of install. On the other hand, the system application is incorporated in advance in the image forming apparatus, and does not require any license.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-355479 is a technique related to system software which is executed while being incorporated in advance in the image forming apparatus. Therefore, unlike the system application, this technique cannot be used for the general application which can be installed later (problem 1).
As described above, install of the general application requires a license, and cannot be coped with by the conventional firmware configuration including the system application which does not require any license (problem 2).
The conventional method does not consider designation of states such as start and stop for the preinstalled general application (problem 3).
Furthermore, in order to change language resources and the like of an image forming apparatus for respective destination countries, an application to be preinstalled has to be changed depending on destination settings (regions). In this case, an application has to be preinstalled in consideration of a combination of the destination settings and application (problem 4).